The knocking out of a pipe can be made almost as important as the smoking of it, especially if there are nervous people in the roo...m. A good, smart knock of a pipe against a tin wastebasket and you will have a neurasthenic out of his chair and into the window sash in no time.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

I hate the prostitution of the name of friendship to signify modish and worldly alliances. I much prefer the company of ploughboys... and tin-peddlers, to the silken and perfumed amity which celebrates its days of encounter by a frivolous display, by rides in a curricle, and dinners at the best taverns.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Grandmother, born in County Tyrone, believed as a good Irishwoman that there were only three kinds of tea fit to drink, none of th...em storebought. The first quality was kept, sensibly enough, in China. The second picking was sent directly to Ireland. The third and lowest grade went, of course, to the benighted British. And all the tea used in our house came once a year, in one or two beautiful soldered tin boxes, from Dublin. Then only would we know it to be second to what the Dowager Empress of China was drinking, while the other Old Lady in Buckingham Palace sipped our dregs, as served her right. ...My grandmother died before tea bags. I am grateful. My mother never admitted their existence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

A 'spasm band' is a miscellaneous collection of a soap box, tin cans, pan tops, nails, drumsticks, and little Negro boys. When mix...ed in the proper proportions this results in the wildest shuffle dancing, accompanied by a bumping rhythm.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is r...aised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »